Sunday, January 27, 2008

Trying to send magazines to inmates? Don't bother.

A recent letter from James included a subscription renewal notice for a monthly sports magazine. I'd taken out the subscription several months ago so he'd have something to read - the jail library only contains romance novels (I'm not joking).

Also, jail rules allow you to have books and magazines sent directly from retailers to inmates, but you can't send an inmate any reading materials directly. The Sheriff's Office Web site states this clearly - scroll down a while, you'll get to it eventually. If you got tired of scrolling, here's the rule, copied and pasted from dallassheriffsoffice.com:

Inmates are allowed to receive books, magazines or newspapers sent from a bookstore (Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, Borders, or directly from a publisher.

Here's the kicker: James never receive a single issue of his magazine.

However, the renewal notice had the correct address.

Where did all those magazines go? I can only assume that the sheriff's department employees are enjoying a subscription to Men's Health on my nickel.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been in almost every one of Dallas' County Jails, and as far as Texas county jails go it isn't bad at all. Kaufman County is a bad jail, Dallas County's jails are cakewalks. Jail isn't supposed to be a nice place. Most county jails are kept cold to keep people from fighting. You would rather your boyfriend/husband have to fight every day because it's hot and everyone is aggravated? That's called the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) and I have been there, too. They have no air conditioning and most units have riots regularly in the warmer months. That drops off to almost nothing in the cold months. Your boyfriend/husband should be glad he has someone pulling for him on the outside, but for anyone to cry about jail is funny to me, especially DCJ. What is he in there for? I bet he doesn't do it again after he gets out, if he gets out. That's the whole point of jail, and the phrase "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." always applies. He should have committed his crime in Tarrant County if jailhouse comfort is what he was looking for, their 'new' (built in late 1980's) jail is pretty damn nice, and the food didn't used to be bad at all.

kristina said...

Hi Jane,
I like your blog and would love to talk to you about your ideas and experiences with the jail system in Dallas. Maybe we can join forces to push for change. you can contact me through my blog at www.dallascandobetter.org
best regards,
Kristina

NoviceApproach said...

i am writing a book about dallas county and the mistreatment of the people there. i would love to hear more about your case, i might even kow james since i worked there for 4 years, still do until they fire me. amity1382@msn.com